1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink composition, a recorded material using the same, a recording method, and a recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, as a white colorant, a white ink composition including hollow polymer fine particles has been known (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,465). The hollow polymer fine particles each have a cavity therein and an outer shell formed of a liquid permeable resin. By the structure described above, since the inside cavities of the hollow resin particles are filled with a solvent in the ink composition, the specific gravity of the hollow resin particles and that of the ink composition are made substantially equal to each other, and hence the hollow resin particles can be stably dispersed in the ink composition. In addition, when an image is formed on a recording medium using this ink composition, since the solvent inside the cavities of the hollow resin particles is replaced with air in drying, the hollow resin particles have a shielding effect by light scattering generated by the difference in refractive index between the outer shell and the cavity of each particle (that is, a white color is exhibited). In general, the hollow resin particle itself is formed of a transparent resin, such as an acrylic resin. In addition, as the white colorant, a white ink composition including a metal oxide has also been known.
However, the above white ink composition is inferior in terms of fixability on a recording medium and hence is not sufficient in terms of rub-off resistance.
In addition, techniques to improve jet stability and storage stability of a white ink composition or a color ink composition have been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-103995, 2000-239585, and 2006-56990. However, all the techniques described above still have room for improvement in terms of rub-off resistance and printing characteristics.